For Zion and Ethiopia: Orde Wingate’s Early Career
While written for a specific group, and therefore rather general, this brief article may result in awakened interest in this great man, whom I’ve spent years extensively researching. Any and all comments, questions and the like are more than welcome. I’ve chosen to post this on Wingate’s birthday.
For Zion and Ethiopia: Orde Wingate’s early career
Aaron Eitan Meyer
Students of recent Middle East history may well be aware of Israel’s attempts to establish aid and favorable relations with African countries. Indeed, this aid was the reason Israel had the plans to Entebbe Airport in 1976, when those plans were crucial towards the daring rescue of Israeli and Jewish hostages held there by terrorists and Idi Amin’s government. But the modern bonds between Israel and Africa actually predate the re-establishment of the Jewish state – and were embodied in one man.
Orde Charles Wingate was born in India in 1903 to a Christian family belonging to an offshoot of the Puritans, known as the Plymouth Brethren. Without delving into the rich but lengthy aspects of his early life, suffice it to say that he was both brilliant and eccentric from a young age – and the fiery sense of commitment to worthy causes that was to define his entire life was prominent from that point. His first military post was to the Sudan, where his cousin Sir Reginald Wingate had found fame as Sirdar, and Wingate’s men affectionately and with the greatest respect called him the Judge.
Due to his familial connections, being also distantly related to Lawrence of Arabia, it is not surprising that he would show an interest in Arab culture, and duly became a Class Three translator in the British Army. Because of this, he was posted to the British Mandate of Palestine as an Intelligence Agent in 1936, during the Arab ‘Revolt.’ His first act, as it was in every phase of his life, was to read everything he could about the situation. He spent months doing this, which led him to become an ardent Zionist, and firmly resolved to do all that he could for the Jewish People, though he had no prior empathies for Jews, much less their plight.
Wingate began going out by himself to various kibbutzim, an act most British officials and military personnel considered madness. He also began to offer his services to the Jewish Agency, particularly its military branch, the Hagana. Jewish officials were quite leery of this intelligence agent, as this was a time where the British military and civilian officials were, to a man, antipathetic to the Jewish cause. For a time, he was derogatorily referred to as ‘Hayedid Shelcha’ – your friend – directed at a Jewish friend of his. This term evolved into the highest form of respect for him, as he became known simply as HaYedid, The Friend – an appellation bestowed on very few friends of the Jewish People.
As his offers of aid were gradually accepted, he decided that ending the nighttime terrorist attacks on the kibbutzim was both possible and essential – a view generally not shared by the Mandatory government. Using the repeated attacks on the Iraq Oil Pipeline as an excuse, he successfully petitioned his superiors to form and train a Special Forces unit to protect the pipeline – and the kibbutzim. This group was known as the Special Night Squads, and its innovative training and tactics were to form the military doctrine of Israel to this very day. Consisting of British and Jewish personnel, many of the future nation’s military leaders would get their first experience here.
Wingate continued to expand his idea, and to develop his unorthodox, and brilliant, anti-guerrilla tactics through 1938. Moreover, the SNS was instrumental in quelling the Arab Revolt, far more so than it is usually given credit for. In taking back the night from the terrorists, and outthinking their every move, Wingate proved not only that Jews could protect themselves, but that terrorism could be effectively countered.
He continued to befriend prominent Zionists, most notably Chaim Weizmann, but Wingate’s zeal continued to alarm the increasingly pro-Arab Foreign Office, and he was removed form the Mandatory area, with strict instructions that he never again set foot in the Mandate or Transjordan. Though banished, he swore that he would return to lead the Jews in what he already foresaw as their battle for independence – and declared that he would return as a refugee if necessary. In return, the Zionist leadership all anticipated having Wingate train and command their forces on that day.
It should be noted that Wingate’s incredible commitment made him a very antagonistic individual, though his friends understood his intensity. This was a man who made Moshe Shertok take notice, David ben Gurion stop short, and Chaim Weizmann cry. The latter was due to Wingate’s intense criticism that Weizmann [Weizmann, of all people!] was not doing enough to further the Zionist cause. He would maintain his connections with these men for the rest of his life, and even afterward, as will be seen later. Sadly, the British turned upon the men Wingate had trained, and imprisoned them for a time, including the young Moshe Dayan.
Banished to Britain, he began proposing a Jewish Force to assist Britain in its war with Germany. His contention that Jews would make soldiers every bit as good as British men, initially rejected in those stereotypical times, was proven out by the SNS and later the Jewish Brigade, which he wished to lead but was not permitted. It was in regards to this proposed Jewish Army that he severely castigated the elderly Weizmann. Still, it remained to be seen where the somewhat infamous officer would next be posted.
Events in the world during the 1930’s extended into the African continent as well. In 1935 Italy invaded and conquered Ethiopia, banishing its ruler, the Emperor Haile Selassie. In a dark day of foreign complicity, Britain and the rest of the world accepted Italy’s actions, and the Emperor was left adrift for four and a half years while his country was subjected to a brutal occupation. However, in 1940, British policy was to shift tremendously for Ethiopia’s sake.
With Italy’s position as an Axis power, and considering German plans for the conquest of Africa, and for many other reasons, Britain finally began paying interest in Ethiopia’s state of affairs. Still, the British were providing much less than promised, and deliberately left the Emperor out of their political and military councils – including the ones that were about his own country!
In this atmosphere of chaos, duplicity and war, Wingate was posted to Khartoum, as British liaison to the Emperor. With his typical conviction, he assured the Emperor that he could win back the latter’s nation, if the Emperor would but give Wingate his complete trust and confidence.
Wingate’s official post was far from significant, as liaison assignments generally are. But Wingate was not a man to let mere technicalities stand in the way of doing what was morally correct. He assumed a command role, and acquired a million pounds of credit with which to arm an Ethiopian force. Despite continued British machinations, the Emperor returned to his country, on January 20th, 1941. As recounted by Wingate’s official biographer, Christopher Sykes, there was a ceremony the next day, some 20 miles past the border. Wingate stood directly behind the Emperor.
Unsurprisingly, Wingate never forgot Zion, and requested several Jewish medics accompany his force, including his former translator and friend, Avraham Akavia. Indeed, as Sykes recounts, Wingate saw his actions in Ethiopia and the Jewish cause as closely related.
Due to his religious background, Wingate was intimately familiar with the Bible, and had been known to point out sites from the Bible to his Jewish soldiers, complete with critiques of the ancient generals who’d fought there. One notable instance concerned Wingate’s deprecatory comment that King Saul deserved to lose to the Philistines as the result of his poor tactics – and demonstrated where troops should have been placed. With this mindset, when it came time to choose a name for his small force, he reached to the Bible to name it after his favorite Biblical general, Gideon.
Gideon Force achieved a number of successes that are incredible by any standard, including defeating Italian-Ethiopian forces that were comprised of over ten thousand men, to Wingate’s 600 or so. In one daring instance, often related, the Italian commander asked for an honor guard after surrendering to what he mistakenly believed was a numerically larger force than his own 14,000. He was denied his request, and only afterward learned the reason – there weren’t enough troops on Wingate’s side to provide even that!
British intrigue was to result in another clash as Gideon Force neared Addis Ababa. Due to its own considerations, Headquarters informed Wingate that the Emperor was not to enter his capitol city, due to some vague description of fighting in the area. Incensed, Wingate marched upon the city anyway, and brought the Emperor there in triumph. Wingate had in fact acquired a white horse for the Emperor to ride into his city, but the Emperor chose instead to ride in a car, and so Wingate rode the horse into Addis Ababa, alongside the Emperor.
Wingate was informed that Gideon Force was disbanded, that his Jewish volunteers would not receive standard hazard pay, and that there were plans going around calling for a British ‘trusteeship’ for Ethiopia. Wingate himself was recalled to Egypt, where he wrote a scathing memorandum, submitted widely to his superiors, that castigated British policy and strongly implied that Britain was attempting to colonize Ethiopia.
For these actions, Wingate found himself the brunt of bureaucratic enmity within the British Armed Forces yet again. His report was suppressed and destroyed, his temporary rank as liaison was removed, leaving him the Captain he’d been earlier, and he was to be banished once more to England, far from battle and the chance to redeem his unjustly soiled name. He was also very ill due to malaria, and the combination of that disease and a particularly devastating medication caused his despondency to descend to suicidal levels, and he attempted suicide in a hotel room.
Despite this course of events, Wingate was eventually posted to Burma, where his concept of long range penetration forces, sending troops far behind enemy lines, was to make him famous, and brought his name to the attention of Winston Churchill, who was to later eulogize him as “… a man of genius, who had been a man of destiny” to Wingate’s superior at the time, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and before the House of Commons thereafter. Tragically, Wingate was to die in a plane crash on March 24, 1944, en route from a visit to his forces in Burma, leaving behind his wife and an unborn son he was never to know.
Wingate’s achievements for both the Jews and Ethiopia did not die with his death. His son, Orde Jonathan Wingate, had the Emperor Haile Selassie as godparent, and received the Hagana Medal from the State of Israel for his father’s actions. In Ethiopia, the Orde Wingate School for Boys was established, at a time when the only other such institution bore the Emperor’s name.
In Israel, virtually every city bears a Wingate Street, and the National Sports Institute bears his name. The innovative military principles he taught to his Jewish troops became, along with the work of Sir Basil Henry Liddell-Hart, the fundamental Israeli military doctrine, including the call of “L’achorai” [After me!] with which Israeli officers have led their troops ever since. His widow Lorna went on to be a forceful advocate for Zionism and Israel, and was responsible for convincing the Canadian Jew Ben Dunkleman to fight for Israel’s Independence, in her husband’s name. Dunkleman was Israel’s most experienced field general in that war, having served in the Canadian military in World War II, and the brigade he commanded was instrumental in the War of Independence.
Had Wingate lived to command Israeli troops in 1948, it is very likely that there would have been no partition of Jerusalem, and no Transjordanian/Jordanian West Bank. Still, his actual accomplishments serve as a worthy testament to this man who not only revolutionized warfare but ensured the rebirth of two nations. He truly was a man of genius and destiny, a man of brilliance and innovation, and above all a man of conviction and integrity.
Wingate once said that the reason people don’t like Jews is that we expect the promissor to keep his word. I would add that we also remember our friends, and keep their names alive forever. It is in this way that we repay those who have stood by us, and it is in this way that we merit, as a people, those who are would be our friends.
